3rd members, gears & bigger tires!

Hello, I wanted to post my experience with gears and tires. I have a 2002 tundra AC 2wd v8 with 4.30 gears running 33x11.5/17 tires with fairly aggressive tread (falken at3w). I was fortunate to find a nice 4.30 rear carrier from a first gen tacoma. I also have a 2006 tundra AC 2wd v8 running stock 3.91 gears on oem 17x7 4Runner wheels (and spacers) with p285/70/17 tires. This wheel and tire combo weighs around 75 pounds. Before that I was running 17x9 wheels with 295 70 17 tires which weighed 90-95 lbs. per corner and I felt the truck still had plenty of power. Needless to say the truck runs very well with the lighter wheels and tires. When I still had stock gears on the 02 the power loss seemed way more noticeable and it started being annoying. What I’m getting at is if you have a 2000-2004 tundra v8 with 4 speed tranny with 33 and up tires I would highly recommend upgrading the gears to at least 4.30 but would probably be best served going to 4.56 with an LSD unit. I know nothing about the double cabs and how they drive but I reckon bigger tires would make a more noticeable difference. I’ve always thought that Toyota should have kept putting the 4.10 gears in the double cabs even after the vvti 5 speed upgrade. I also have a 2007 tacoma v6 that I’ve changed a few things on that I will post about in the next week or so.

 

4.56 with LSD I have, it helps compensate for the diameter and the weight.

 

Awesome, do you have the vvti or non vvti 4.7?

 

Non vvti and 4 speed. Running 285 75 16 tires.

 

I was actually thinking about installing a Detroit tru trac lsd. Have your experiences been pretty positive with the gear change?